Corruption
by Saiyaness28
Summary: After her mother is killed, a baby Yautja is taken in by humans and raised at a government lab. When a male of the species comes to earth for a hunt, the scientists use her to stop the killing, but then she begins to see how much she's been corrupted. R/R
1. Chapter 1

Corruption

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Predator franchise. It belongs to it's respective copyright holders. I am writing this story for fun, no other reason. Anyway, enjoy!

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><p><span>Chapter One<span>

Weyland Industries Research lab, Amazon rain forest, 2020:

Hues leaned back in his chair and stretched with a loud yawn. Damn this post was boring, looking after the scientists at this dinky little research lab in the middle of a fucking jungle. In two weeks, the most exciting thing to happen was the little earth quake four nights before. It didn't even make a blip on the local news radar. Apparently, they were the only ones that felt it. "I got to get out of here." He groaned. With nothing to do but sit, eat and watch reruns of _I love Lucy_, he was getting fat. "I have to piss." Said the armed soldier, as he walked passed the two scientists on duty.

Ridges didn't look up from his tablet screen. He made a affirmative grunt, and went on staring at the latest data chart. The pretty blond woman, Sullivan, took her eyes off of her microscope for a few seconds to glance his way. "That's fine, Hues. Bring me back a water sample if you find some. It shouldn't be too hard in a rain forest."

"Will do." Hues sighed, waving at the two, before exiting the small lab, and entering the muggy Amazonian air. "I can't wait to get home." He muttered, as he trudged through the thick underbrush towards a suitable tree. "First thing I'm going to do, is hit a bar. This is a sad joke, having to baby sit." He stopped at the tree and began taking care of his business. He'd just begun to piss, when a shrill cry made him jump and wet his own boots. "What the hell was that?" He hissed, whipping his head around for any sign of a dieing animal. The crying began again, it was high pitched and raspy, a bit like a screeching bird. After he put himself away and cleaned pee off his boots, he followed the sound. It was so loud, it seemed to be very close, but it took him several minutes to find it's actual origin. Pulling back some tree limbs, he saw it, the thing making the terrible noise. Up, on a high tree limb, sat some kind of creature. It was impossibly large, with a big, bony head and mandibles tipped with sharp talons. It's skin looked like reptilian scales and was colored with a pattern of brown and ivory, speckled with black spots. Black tubes decorated it's head in almost a dreadlock like fashion, decorated with silver rings. From the neck down, the creature was almost human in build, and was obviously female. She wore a loin cloth and a piece of fabric draped over one breast, while the other was left bare, allowing easy access to the squirming miniature beast that was making the nauseating screeching.

"What is that thing?" Hues asked himself, hurriedly crouching down so that the creature wouldn't see him. In awe, he stared at the mother and baby thing, watching them. The mother was so large, Hues didn't know how the limb she sat on held her weight. She had to be nearing eight and a half feet tall. She shifted the infant around to her back and the thing grabbed a hold of her dreadlocks and climbed up her back. It nestled into the nest of locks, it's cries dieing away. The mother readjusted the fabric on her chest to cover her bare breast and crawled, nimbly, across the branch. It scanned the ground below, it's mandibles flaring with a purring clicking sound. It seemed to be looking for something. When it's eyes fell on where Hues was crouched, her mandibles flared as far out as they could go. She let loose a blood chilling roar and leapt down from the limb, landing almost silently on her feet.

"Shit!" Hues screamed, scrambling to get his rifle in position.

The mother lowered her body into a threatening half crouch and roared threateningly again. Hues fired a round at her. The bullet struck her shoulder. This only seemed to piss her off more. A rumbling growl reverberated through the jungle. She lunged towards Hues, her hands ready to tear him limb from limb. Screaming in fear, Hues shot off several more rounds. One hit the mother in the leg. Another hit her in the stomach and the last found it's mark between her eyes. She finally stopped, mere inches from Hues and fell with a heavy thud beside him. Bright green blood pooled around her body and splattered the back of her head. The baby still clung to it's mother's odd hair, miraculously untouched.

"Shit! Shit!" Hues gasped, breathing heavily. He edged slowly towards the fallen creature and nudged her with his boot. The mother didn't budge. She was just dead weight on the forest floor. He looked at the baby and groaned. "I'm sorry." He said, pointing his gun at it's tiny, yet over sized head. Before he could pull the trigger, it lifted up it's head, shakily, and chirped, it's mandibles, flaring to show a mouth full of gums. It's large, yellow eyes met Hues' blue ones. It chirped again, and reached a chubby arm towards him. He watched it's already sharp nailed hands open and close, searching for something to hold onto.

"Oh geeze." Hues grumble. He knelt down and picked up the baby. As soon as it was close to him, it wiggled out of his hands and latched onto his shirt. Like a monkey on steroids, it climbed quickly around his front to cling onto his back as it had it's mother. Hues was a little, uneasy, having a monster baby on his back, but he could feel it's heart fluttering ninety miles a minute, reverberating in his own body. He could feel it shaking, trembling like a leaf. It was helpless…or so it seemed. He looked down sadly at the dead mother. "I wish it hadn't come to this." He whispered. "I'll take care of your kid, make sure it's safe."

His radio blared to life. In the excitement, he'd forgotten he had brought it. Ridges' baritone blared over the com-waves. "Hues! Hues! You alive out there! Talk to me!"

Hues snatched his radio from his belt and held it to his lips. "Damn, Ridges, have I got a story for you."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"I don't…believe this." Sullivan gasped, as she stared wide eyed at the dead mother creature. She lay on a metal gurney back at the lab. She lifted her brown eyes to the smaller version of the dead one, that still clung to Hues' back, it's bony head peaking over his shoulder. It's yellow eyes were round with curiosity. It flared out it's mandibles and chirped. "Or that." She added.

"What do you think they are?" Asked Hues. Reaching over his shoulder to pet the baby's head. It closed it's eyes and purred in contentment.

Ridges typed away at his lap top, beads of sweat dripping from his face. "This. Is. Remarkable." He stated, shaking his head in wonder, a slight smile stretching his lips. "No one has ever seen a female before…let alone an infant." He grinned at his colleagues. "Do you know how rich these monsters are going to make us?" He laughed, giddily.

"You know what she is, don't you, Ridges." Hues said, pointing at the mother. Ridges ignored him and went on typing.

"This creature is not unknown to us." Sullivan answered for him.

"Is it some kind of new species or something? A scientific experiment? An alien?" He started to laugh at the absurdity of his last suggestion but quit when he noticed the hard gulp Sullivan made. "Oh, my god!" He gasped, sinking down in a chair. The baby made a displeased growl and scurried around to cling to his front. Instinctively, Hues reached up and cradled it in his hands, holding it closer to his body.

"There have been several…incidences with these creatures. Some of them come to earth every year at least, during the hottest times and places. They're attracted to heat and violence…conflict." She continued, eyeing the baby. "The government calls them the Predators. Do you know why?" Hues shook his head, mutely. "They are hunters, Mr. Hues. We are their prey." She looked down at the mother and played with the small monkey skull she wore on a necklace. "They take trophies from their best kills." She looked back at the baby. "They look at us, as we look at big game. Dangerous animals, challenging to hunt, and even more so to kill."

"We are familiar with their kind, but we've never come across a female or young before. The creatures in all the previous cases that we've heard of were all males." Ridges added. "Sullivan, I want to do an autopsy on the mother. We can learn a lot from looking at her insides. You take care of the infant." He said, pushing the gurney towards a back room.

"What are you going to do with the kid?" Hues asked, protectively holding the baby to his chest. It looked up at him and made a small peep, as if being squeezed too tightly.

"I'm just going to look her over for now, make sure it's healthy, and get an estimate of how old it is." Said Sullivan, snapping on a pair of gloves.

"I mean after that. Are you going to hand it over to the government?" Hues asked.

"Of course." She answered. "By studying the creature, we'll be able to learn more about the species, than anyone ever imagined. I have to give it to government officials."

Hues frowned unhappily, but laid the baby down on a table, so that Sullivan could have a better look at it. The baby began to wail, it's shrieking cry, making Sullivan cover her ears and cry out in pain.

"It's okay. Here." Hues soothed, giving the baby his finger to hold onto. "Sorry about that. It doesn't seem to like to be without body contact."

"I noticed." Sullivan sighed, shacking her head to clear her ears of ringing. She took her first good look at the baby, lightly touching it's belly to keep it from wiggling too much. "Well, if human anatomy is anything to go by, it appears to be female."

"Really? A girl?" Hues chuckled.

"Have you never seen one before, Hues?" Sullivan laughed.

"Yeah, but I don't know how Predator sex works."

"Hmmm." Sullivan murmured, rubbing her thumb over the bit of dead flesh on the baby's naval. "I'm going to estimate that she's within a week old. A little of the umbilical cord is still attached." She continued her exam, looking at the baby's mandibles and gums, at her eyes and generally every other inch of her. "She looks pretty healthy." When she listened to her heart, however, she had to do a double take. "That's weird." She said.

"What?" Asked, Hues, getting a bit worried.

"Her heart beat sounds off. I'll have to look at the mother's to make sure she doesn't have a defect, but it sounds a lot stronger than a human's." She moved to listen to her lungs. "She's breathing funny too. She may need a little help with that." She hooked her up to some oxygen, placing a clear mask loosely over her mandibles. "We need to get her fed. Until I can figure out exactly what nutrients is in her mother's milk, some simple fluids will have to suffice." She started to prepare her for an IV drip. The baby screamed for good while after Sullivan put the IV into her veins, but Hues let her cling to his hand until it was so numb, he was afraid it was going to fall off, and she fell into a sound sleep.

"I think I'm going to call her Monkey." Mused Hues, smiling down at the clingy creature, now wrapped up in a blanket.

"Hues, I don't think that's a good idea. You're already too attached to her. She's a alien, not a dog. You can't keep her as a pet." Said Sullivan, always the voice of reason. "Besides, Monkey is a horrible name. She's of a proud race of hunters, of warriors. If you must, give her a name with some dignity."

"Aww, but I thought it was cute." Hues chuckled. "And she is a monkey." He tried to pull his hand away, but the baby wasn't having it. She clung to him with all her might, still fast asleep.

"True." Sullivan yawned, unable to keep a smile from spreading across her face at the sight of the baby predator, still gripping the human's hand in her sleep. It was hard to believe that one day, she'd grow into a being able to rip that hand from his body without breaking a sweat. "However, she's not going to stay little for long." She jabbed a thumb towards the back room. "One day she's going to be like her mother."

"Fine." Hues relented. "Do you have any ideas? You women are usually good at this kind of thing."

Sullivan leaned her cheek against her knuckles, as she watched the baby's alien face shift into different odd expression as she dreamed. "How about…Artemis, after the Greek goddess of the hunt? It seems befitting."

Hues shrugged his broad shoulders. "It sounds alright, but I'm still going to call her Monkey for now."

Sullivan laughed lightly. "Do whatever you want, but don't say I didn't warn you when she kills you for giving her that stupid name. I'm going to say her name's Artemis in my report."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"How's Artemis this morning?" Asked Sullivan, as she entered the lounge room of the lab, still dressed in her pajamas, strands of her blond hair escaping her loose ponytail. She smiled, seeing Hues collapsed on the couch, his head resting on the headrest. Artemis was nestled beside him, gnawing at her fingers with gums and mandibles.

Hues lifted his head and smiled excitedly at her. "Watch this!" He said, picking up the baby Predator, he sat her on the table in front of him and slowly took his hands away. She sat there, now fully able to support the weight of her head.

"She can sit up on her own?" Sullivan gasped. "It takes months for human babies to do that!"

"I know." Hues laughed. Artemis started to growl, her mandibles clicking together in irritation. The terrible shriek wasn't far behind, before she could let loose that travesty, Hues picked her up again and sat her on his lap. "What do you think?" Hues asked.

"Well…maybe it's a survival strategy. Some animals have to learn to walk within the first few hours of birth. Their development rate may be significantly faster than ours. It probably comes from living in a harsh environment."

"In English, please."

Sullivan sighed. "It means that she might grow up faster than human children do."

"That's too bad. She's cute." Hues said, turning the baby over in his hands and bouncing her on his knee. Artemis flared out her mandibles in what he assumed was their version of a smile. "You know…in a "so ugly it's cute" kind of way."

Sullivan reached over and stoked the baby's bony head. Artemis' big eyes shifted over to her and she clicked her mandibles together happily. "She's definitely cute now. I don't think she will be for very long, though. Just wait until she grows into her head."

"You think she's going to get as big as her mother?" Asked Hues, gulping as he remembered the huge creature charging towards him.

"If not bigger." Sullivan replied.

"Jesus! What else do you know? Did you find out anything in the autopsy?"

Sullivan reached over to the table and picked up a tablet. She fingered through slides and diagrams, detailing significant findings. "Well, firstly, we've determined that her mother was actually an adolescent, barely sexually mature. Artemis was her first baby."

"That thing was a teenager?" Hues gulped. If that was a teen, he was afraid of what an adult might look like.

"We've also noted that she is a little larger than the other male Predators we've come across. Fully grown, she may have gotten to be more than a foot taller."

"The females are larger than the males? That's weird."

"Not in reptiles it's not. Think about snakes. In certain species, the females are the largest. Now, Predators are warm blooded, they have mammary glands and mammalian teeth, and they give birth to live young. However, they also share some traits with cold blooded animals, like the scales and some internal features. The most surprising thing that I found is that they have hollow bones, like a bird. This makes them surprisingly light for something of it's size, and allows it to jump and climb to great heights." She flipped to a picture of a heart. "The heart has five chambers, giving it a lot more power. The brain has it's own circulation system. Thanks to this, they can endure a normally fatal blood pressure. Most of the other organs are generally the same. The lungs are larger, than ours, however. They breathe oxygen, but at a 30% greater density. The hair is actually hollow tubes, filled with blood vessels. I think they may be some kind of cooling system, allowing them to withstand higher temperatures. It makes sense, since they seem to like heat."

"Okay. My brain's about to explode. That's enough for now."

Sullivan laughed. "Fine. The data's all here if you want to take a look later." She put down the tablet and reached for the baby. "Can I hold her?"

"I guess." Hues said, carefully handing her over.

Sullivan held her up, letting her stand on her lap. "Hello, Artemis. How are you today?" Sullivan cooed. Artemis reached up and grabbed a few strands of hair, yanking on it harshly. "Ow!" She yelped.

Artemis clicked her mandibles, rapidly, in the Predator's version of a giggle. A few seconds later, there was an echo of Sullivan's yelp, a perfect replay of her voice.

Sullivan and Hues gawked at her. "Did she just-" Began Hues. "Mimic your voice?"

"The reports mentioned the Predator's being able to mimic, but I didn't think they could do it this young. I thought it was a learned behavior, but obviously it's instinctual. Can you do that again, Artemis? Say Ow!" She coaxed.

Artemis just blinked at her, her bright eyes shifting curiously, taking in every bit of information she could see.

"I don't think she wants to do it again."

Sullivan frowned. "I guess not." She looked up at Hues. "Ridges headed back to Weyland last night, while you were asleep." Hues scowled. "He's going to meet with some government officials there, tell them about our findings, about Artemis." Sullivan continued.

"Do we really have to give her to them? I don't want her to be dissected or something." He said.

"She won't be dissected. She's too valuable for that. She'll be closely monitored and studied. By watching her, we'll finally understand what we're up against. Many lives will be saved through this research."

"She's going to be put in a cage." He spat with distaste.

"She'll be given a state of the art enclosure."

"A nice cage, but a cage all the same."

"What do you want me to do, Hues? Give her to you to raise? How the hell are you going to take care of a nine foot killing machine? Huh? If the mimicking is instinctual, then what else is? She's cute now, but that won't last forever. What if she turns on you?"

"Hues." Piped a slightly muffled echo of Sullivan's voice. They looked at the baby Predator, who smiled back at them with spread mandibles. She clicked them together again. "Hues." She repeated, reaching towards him.

He took her back from her and held her against his chest. Artemis groped at his face with her nimble fingers, tugging at his lips and nose. "I don't want anything bad to happen to her. That's all." Hues said, sadly.

"We'll talk to the officials when we get back home. Maybe we can work something out with them, get you a job as her handler or something. She obviously loves you. It would be sad, taking her from you."

Two days later, they received word that Weylend was sending a chopper to come pick them and their new little friend up. It seemed every day, Artemis grew a little stronger and had learned something new. She was already standing and was stretching her mimicking ability to the max, copying everything from their voices, to Hues' cell phone's ring tone.

"You like it?" Sullivan asked Artemis, as she buttoned up the little sun dress she'd bought for her. The girly pink of the dress was a startling contrast to the baby's pale brown and ivory coloring. Artemis chirped in response. "I got it special for our trip."

She reached up and started to play with Sullivan's pearl necklace. "Trip." She mimicked, Sullivan's husky, feminine voice playing over the baby's talented vocal cords.

"That's right. We're going away. We're going to take you to a new home." Said Sullivan, smiling at the little creature she'd come to care for deeply. She fought back the tears that threatened to fall. She was going to miss her terribly.

Artemis cocked her large head to the side, her short dreadlocks falling to the side. She looked over her shoulder at Sullivan's tiny personal quarters. "Home." She chirped.

Sullivan swallowed hard. "I wish you could stay here too." Wanting to change the subject quickly, Sullivan handed her a bottle, filled with goat's milk, which was a surprising supplement for her mother's. "Here you go. Drink up."

Artemis hungrily took the bottle from her and began to suckle earnestly, her mandibles latching firmly around the bottle, holding it in place. She could hold it all by herself, without even using her hands.

"Is she ready? The chopper's almost here. We have to get to the landing zone." Said Hues as he entered. He sat a back pack on the bed and unzipped it.

"She's ready. What's the bag for?"

"I don't want her to get freaked out. I thought this would help." He picked up Artemis, and after laying a blanket at the bottom of the bag, he put her inside. "You're going to ride in here, okay?"

"Okay?" Artemis mimicked, her mandibles loosening their grip on her bottle. Milk spilled out of her mouth.

"Oh no! She's getting her dress dirty!" Sullivan flustered, quickly taking a napkin and wiping the baby's face and dress clean.

"You're dressing her in baby clothes? Now who's getting too attached?" Hues teased.

"Shut up. I'm not made of stone." Sullivan muttered.

They packed up and Hues slipped the back pack on backwards, carefully supporting Artemis' weight in his arms and cooing reassurances to her as they made their way across the open clearing of the pick up zone. Artemis didn't like the noise of the chopper. She made little growls and clicks, as she burrowed into the blanket, making a little nest for herself.

Sullivan and Hues jumped into the chopper. They sat across from two armed soldiers, who eyed the wiggling back pack curiously.

"Hi, Luther, Santez." Hues nodded in greeting. "Figures they'd send you two."

Luther, a large bald guy with a mountain man beard, gestured towards the bag with his gun. "That your new pet, Hues?"

"Hues." Artemis repeated in Luther's gruff voice from within the womb of the back pack. Luther and Santez gawked at it.

"Can we see it?" Asked Santez, a nervous smile on his face.

Hues and Sullivan looked at each other. Sullivan nodded, giving him the okay. Reluctantly, Hues opened up the bag and pulled it down to reveal the little creature within. Artemis was hugging her blanket, tightly, chirping like mad, her brow muscles angled sharply over yellow eyes in a displeased expression.

"Holy hell." Santez gasped, making the sign of the cross over his chest.

Luther stared wide eyed at it. Hues noticed his jaw clench.

"You okay, Luther?" He asked the larger man.

Luther's eyes sharpened as they met Hues'. "Throw the damn thing from the chopper!" He spat.

"It's just a baby, Luther." Santez protested, trying to calm the older man down.

"Bull shit! I've seen what a bigger one can do, Santez!" He yelled back.

"We're not going to kill her!" Said Sullivan firmly. "We need to study her."

Luther's eyes narrowed. "If you think you and your scientist buddies can control that thing, you've got another thing coming." He turned his head and stared out at the jungle below. "I cut my friends' skinned bodies out of trees in Guatemala. Don't tell me there's nothing to fear from that thing."

Luther went silent after that. Santez was more open to the idea of learning about the Predators. Perhaps it was his youth that kept his mind open, maybe it was just pure idiocy. He was fascinated by her mimicking ability. It made Luther squirm in his seat.

Santez slapped Luther on the knee with a boyish laugh. "Luther, watch this!" Santez waved his arm around , zooming it this way and that, up and down. Artemis' eyes followed his hand around with a stern focus, never faltering away. "She's watching me like a hawk!" He laughed.

Luther grunted and made a noise like he was about to puke. He turned his head away again. "Of course. That's what the son-of-a-bitches do."

A few hours into the ride, Luther had relaxed enough that he took a bag of jerky from his pocket and started to eat.

Artemis made a screeching noise and reached for the bag, her hands opening and closing. Santez nudged his friend. "Hey, Luther. I think she wants some jerky." Luther shot him a glare. "Come on, man, just give the kid some jerky."

Reluctantly, Luther snapped a piece in half and tossed it towards Hues. Artemis snatched it up and scarfed it down, her mandibles working to pull the dried meat into her mouth, her toothless gums smashing the meat into a paste. She swallowed it with a happy purr of clicks.

"I didn't think she was old enough to eat meat yet." Said Sullivan.

"I think she likes it more than the milk." Hues said with a light chuckle.

Artemis kept begging for more with her chirps and purrs, and eventually commandeered the entire bag.

Hues' heart began to pound as he and Sullivan were escorted down the halls of Weylend Industries to the meeting room where the government officials awaited their arrival. He gripped the bag in front of him, his fingers digging into the fabric. Artemis looked up at him through the opening and peeped at him in short chirps.

"Welcome, Dr. Sullivan, Mr. Hues. Take a seat." Greeted the dark skinned man that met them at the door of the meeting room. Sullivan and Hues sat down at a long table and the man and the Japanese woman with him soon joined him. "I am James Lawfield. This is Yuri Fujimoka." The man introduced them. "We've been sent to collect the infant Predator that you found."

"Would you mind showing it to us?" Asked Yuri.

Hues pulled the bag down around the baby predator. Her head popped out and she made a rattling growl at the two strangers.

"Oh fuck!" Yuri jumped in her surprise, covering her mouth with her hands.

Artemis' mandibles flew out to full extinction. She screeched loudly then dove back into the bag.

"You scared her." Said Hues, biting his tongue to keep from laughing.

"_I _scared _her_? God, that thing is ugly." She shivered.

Sullivan spoke up, changing the focus back on the really important matters. "Before we hand her over, we'd like to ask that we remain involved with her as she grows up. We- She has become attached us, you understand. I think that it would be beneficial for her to have people she already trusts handling her."

"We agree, Dr. Sullivan. That's why you are being transferred to a lab in a Nevada military base. We've already made arrangements for the creature to be held there. A state of the art enclosure is being built as we speak." Said Lawfield.

"What about me?" Asked Hues.

Lawfield frowned at him. "I'm afraid that those felt that just Sullivan would be enough to keep the Predator's stress level down. Plus, her expertise on Predator biology would be beneficial in the future."

Hues' heart fell into his belly. He gripped Artemis a little tighter.

Lawfield reached into a pocket on the inside of his jacket and brought out a card. "We did, however, secure an access card for you. You'll be able to check in whenever you like…after you've signed a few documents of course."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Military Base Laboratory, Unkown location, Nevada, Year 2030:

Hues never thought he'd have to use his clearance pass for this.

"Hues!" Sullivan smiled at him, her brown eyes sparkling behind her glasses.

Hues' eyes fluttered up and down her frame. He had to admit she looked good for a woman in her late thirties. "Hey, how have you been?"

"Good." She replied, swiping a loose strand of hair back from her face. There was a loud bang from somewhere else in the facility. "Well…mostly."

"What was that?" Asked Hues.

"Artemis." Sullivan sighed. "She's been…less than agreeable recently. I swear, ever since she hit puberty she's been a nightmare."

Hues' eyes widened and he gawked at the blond scientist. "She's hit puberty already? She's ten!" It had been years since his last visit. Work and life got in the way and even though he had a pass, the government didn't really allow him to visit whenever he wanted. His visits had become very rare, as Artemis got older.

Sullivan smirked. "She reached sexual maturity two years ago, after your last visit. You know how fast she grows, twice as fast as us, actually. She may technically be ten years old, but biologically, she is as mature as a girl in her late teens."

"Wow. She must have changed a lot in two years." He said, shaking his head sadly. He'd missed a lot.

"You'd be surprised how much." Said Sullivan. She reached over to a consol beside her work desk and pressed a button. "Ben, bring Artemis to my office please. Tell her Hues is here to see her. You shouldn't have any problems with her."

"Yes, ma'am." A gruff male voice answered through some speakers.

"Actually, I'm not here, entirely to see Artemis." Hues said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I've…run into a problem. A big one. I could use your expertise."

Sullivan removed her glasses and stuck them in a pocket of her white coat as she leaned her hip against the console. "What is it?"

Hues' blue eyes steeled. "We've got a hunter on the loose in Las Vegas." He paused as he watched Sullivan's mouth fall open in shock. "So far the death toll is idling at twelve, but it's been rising steadily every day over the last four."

"Are you sure it's a Predator doing the killings? Not just some psycho serial killer?"

Hues shook his head. "The bodies were all found strung up by their ankles, skinned, some with their skulls and spines ripped out. It's pretty classic Predator. Plus we have this." He reached into his pocket and brought out a golden disk. He pressed a button on it and spines shot out, making the bazaar disk look like a sun. "We found it in the head of a drug dealer on the east side of the city."

She took it from him and turned it over and over in her hands, her eyes studying every inch of it. "What do you want to know?"

"We've tracked him back to an abandoned warehouse. I think he's been using it as a base. I've had men staking it out for the past couple of days, but no one ever sees a thing and then the next day we find out that there's another body a mile from the place. It's like he knows we're there. He knows when to steer clear of the warehouse."

"He probably does." Said Sullivan, looking up from the fascinating alien tech. "He's a hunter, Hues. Hunters stalk their prey before they kill it. He's been watching every move you make, learning your patterns. Artemis does the same thing. That's part of the reason she's starting to get out of hand. We have to use a different code for the door locks every day to keep her from getting out."

"Do you know how we can stop the hunter? Is there a way we can…I don't know…lure him out?"

"I don't…" Sullivan began, then stopped abruptly, her eyes widening. "Artemis."

"What about her?" Asked Hues.

"She's currently in heat. Pheromones are pouring out of her like crazy! If the hunter is male and is close enough to smell her, then he'll come running. You could use her to lure him out!"

Hues narrowed his eyes at her. "You want me to use her as bait?"

"Well…" She paused, biting her lip nervously. "Yes."

The two jumped at the sound of the mechanical doors swishing open. They turned to see Artemis enter. Hues' jaw went slack. This wasn't the waist high child he remembered from two years ago. He felt his blood freeze in his veins. Here was a duplicate of the Predator he had killed ten years before in the Amazon.

Artemis had to duck her head to pass through the doors. She was easily at eight and a half feet tall. The pattern on her scaly skin had darkened a little, but was still lighter than her mother's had been. She was off white at her core then the brown color darkened the further away from her core it went. She was wearing a red sports bra and a pair of black shorts. She had indeed matured. Her body was that of a woman, slender with lithe, flexible muscle. Her dreadlocks swung passed her hips now. He fondly remembered decorating it with ribbons until at age eight she declared she was too old for such things and that ribbons were stupid, girly things. She'd finally seemed to have grown into her head a little more. Her yellow eyes were not quite as dominant. Instead her mandibles seemed the most prominent feature on her face. Around her neck was a metal band with a green light glowing from it's center. Around her wrists were a pair of huge shackle like bands that were fused together, keeping her hands in front of her body.

"Hues?" Said Artemis, using her own voice to say his name instead of the mimicry she'd used as a baby. Her voice was sultry, with a rattling vibration to it, almost like a purr. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I thought I'd come by for a visit. It's been a while since I last saw you." He said with a smile. He was a little disappointed that she didn't run up hug him like she used to. Instead, he got a much colder welcome.

"It's been two years." She growled, her eyes narrowing angrily at him. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I'm sorry, Artemis. Things get in the way a lot. I don't get to come here very often, not nearly as often as I'd like."

Artemis made a irritable sound with her mandibles, rolled her eyes and plopped down on a chair. The chair creaked in protest under her weight. "I don't really believe you, but whatever." She glared at him shrewdly. "What are you really here for, Hues? You seem…nervous. You're fidgeting more than usual and sweating." She motioned at his feet with her head. He hadn't even noticed that he was shifting back and forth restlessly.

"Uh…" He paused, then finally cleared his throat. "There's something that I need your help with, Artemis. There's another of your kind on Earth as we speak. A male." He noticed Artemis' eyes widen slightly in surprise. "He's already killed a lot of people and we have to stop him before even more die."

Artemis' mandibles flared, then she cocked her head to the side with a raised brow. "And you'd like me to help how?" She asked, motioning with her shackled hands at the lab surrounding her. "I don't exactly have much freedom to do as I please."

"Um…well…we thought that since you are a female….and he's male…that uh."

"You want to use me as bait?" She growled, her mandibles flaring widely.

"Basically." Hues admitted timidly. "You'll be guarded of course. We won't let him hurt you. We just need to get him out of hiding."

"That's not what I'm afraid of." Said Artemis, her mandibles clicking together softly. "You want to catch him right? Keep him in a cage like me?"

"That would be the hope." Sullivan added. "We don't want to have to kill him unless we absolutely have to."

"That man won't be like me, Sullivan." She spat, narrowing her yellow eyes at the human female. "I've never known anything different. He won't be nearly as cooperative with you."

"We realize that." Sullivan nodded. "Security will have to increase, but the knowledge that we can obtain from him greatly out weighs the dangers.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Artemis sighed. "Tell you what, Hues. If it means getting out of here for a few hours, I'll help you, but I want to have a chance to talk to him once he's captured."

"Why?" Asked Hues with interest.

"I've been raised as a human my whole life. I have no idea what it means to be a Predator. Maybe he can tell me."

Artemis paced back and forth inside the meat truck, the government had gotten to transport her in. She shuddered and cringed at the pain that shot through her as her scales cracked. She let out a pain filled roar. "Damn it! Why the hell did they put me in a refrigerator! My skin feels like it's going to fall off!"

"We need you to be awake for the mission, just in case something goes wrong. The cold is the best sedation we can use short of drugs." Explained Hues, his breath puffing from his lips in grey clouds as he spoke. He was dressed in his battle gear, bulletproof vest and protective padding. He held his gun up and switched off the safety as the truck rolled to a stop.

"Wish they'd picked something a little less painful." Artemis clicked, rolling her shoulder blades and easing the stiffness in her muscles and joints.

The back of the truck opened up and Santez gawked at the much bigger Artemis. "Damn, she's gotten big!" He gasped.

"I'll take that as a complement." Muttered Artemis, eying the short Latino man as she stepped off of the truck.

Luther walked up with his gun raised to his chest. Both of the men had obviously aged. Santez had a few more lines in his face and Luther's beard had some grey hairs. "You got your pet on a leash, Hues?" Luther growled in his rough voice.

Artemis rattled her mandibles irritably at him.

"She's fine. The collar around her neck will give her a shock if she starts to misbehave."

"Good. The last thing we need is _two _of the ugly fucks on the loose." Said Luther as he glared up at Artemis.

"Who are you calling an ugly fuck?" Artemis hissed, returning his glare.

"Enough, both of you." Said Hues, stepping between them. "We've got a job to do. Let's get on it."

"Right." Artemis chirped. "Let's go catch a Predator. God knows you people need another to add to your collection." Artemis followed the human males into the abandoned warehouse. She looked around the wide expanse of the empty building, housing only empty crates. She noted the rafters above. Those would make excellent view points for the hunter. There were also plenty of places for him to hide if he were here. The further she went into the building the more and more she began to notice the smell. It was a musky scent. Sweat, mammalian blood, dirt, heat. It wasn't entirely unpleasant. It made her muscles tighten and butterflies flutter in her stomach. The more she smelled it, the more she wanted to find it's origin. "Do you smell that?" She asked the humans, between deep intakes of breath through her nostrils.

"No." Answered Hues. The other two simply shook their heads.

"What is it?" Asked Santez.

"I…" She paused, continuing to breathe in the scent. It was getting stronger. Whatever it was, was getting closer. "I think it's the Predator. I think he's here."

"Where?" Luther yelled, in a panic. He whipped his gun around, frantically looking for a monster.

"I don't know yet. Watch the rafters." Said Artemis. She inwardly cursed the humans. If her hands weren't shackled she could be crawling around up there, flushing the hunter out. She couldn't even help them if he attacked. All she could do was stand there and wait for her smell alone to draw him closer to them.

High above, in a darkened corner of the rafters, the hunter watched the odd group with fascination. His cloaking device was switched on. So long as he didn't move too quickly, the humans at least would not notice him. However, the woman with them was another matter. One far more troubling. She was a yautja female. A young one at that. She should not be here at all. He had first caught her scent while he was hunting about a mile into the heart of the city. Her scent was that strong and intoxicating aroma of a female that was ready for breeding. It was nearly impossible for a male to ignore. Filled with curiosity, he came back to investigate, but he never expected to find an actual female. Her presence made no sense and her companions made even less sense. He noted the restraints on her arms and her cracked hide. She'd been in extreme cold…recently. She was probably too stiff and cold to move quickly. The restraints kept her from tearing them apart at least, but he didn't understand why she didn't just run away from them. Even in her present state, they'd still never be able to catch her. But then he caught sight of the band around her throat. A chill went down his spine. Was she being controlled somehow? That made his blood boil. His hand tightened around the shaft of his spear.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

From somewhere in the abandoned warehouse, came a succession of clicks. The sound was so similar to the sounds Artemis made, it seemed unearthly to her. She froze where she stood and eyed the rafters in the eastern corner. With her heat vision she could see a shifting form. It was humanoid, but not quite human. The head was too large, the body heat too high, the body itself much too large. The body was crouched there, a tall object gripped in his hand. Artemis could feel him watching her and could do nothing but gawk back. She had to warn the humans, but she found that she couldn't form the words. Her talented tongue and vocal cords had suddenly forgotten how to make the necessary sounds. Instead she returned the succession of clicks, mimicking the male.

Meanwhile the men were in a panic, whipping the barrels of their guns around, trying to find the origin of the original clicks.

"Where is he, Artemis? Do you see him?" Asked Hues.

Luther let out a string of curses and Santez began to mumble a prayer.

Artemis didn't say a word.

"What are you looking at?" Hues asked and followed Artemis' gaze to the eastern corner of the building. Up in the rafters, he saw a tiny movement. It was hardly noticeable, just a shimmer in the air like heat waves coming off hot pavement. "There!" Hues shouted, firing in rapid succession. Santez and Luther shot along with him. The blur vaulted from where he crouched and leapt over their heads, gliding from rafter to rafter. Finally, they got a direct hit. The bullet struck the predator's gauntlet. Electric sparks flew over his scaly skin, as it came into view. His cloaking device had been damaged. An angry roar erupted from the beast. Something on the predator's shoulder moved slightly and a triangular set of dots appeared on Hues' forehead.

"Duck, Hues!" Luther screamed, reaching to yank his comrade out of the way of the coming blast. Artemis was quicker. She shoved Hues to the ground. The blast struck the ground, inches from Hues' body.

The predator couldn't believe what had just happened. The captured female had shoved her captor out of the way of his blast. Why? Pulling back his arm, he launched his spear with all his might. It met its target at full speed and skewered Santez straight through the middle.

Santez looked down at his wound in a daze. Blood poured out of his mouth. The dots appeared on his head and the predator ended his suffering.

"Santez!" Luther screamed. "God damn it!" There was panic in his voice. It was written all over their faces. They were scared shitless. Artemis, however, was in awe. She stared at Santez' decapitated and skewered body. Santez was a good man, one of the few she actually liked, yet she could not help but admire the skill of his killer.

The predator leapt down from the rafters. His landing was strangely light and forceful at the same time. As he stood up to his full height, Artemis noted the flexing of the muscles beneath his skin. He possessed immense strength and prowess. She swallowed hard. So this is what a predator was supposed to be?

The predator released his wrist blades. The jagged, serrated metal glistened in the gunfire. He dodged their bullets, spinning and leaping athletically. He got to Luther first and slashed at him. The blades cut deep into Luther's side. He fell on the floor, groping at the wound, trying in vain to control the bleeding.

Artemis blinked out of her trance. Hues was the only one left standing and the predator had set his sites on him. She ran in-between the two, the human male behind her and her own kind in front. The Predator male spoke to her in an language that was both oddly familiar and completely foreign. It was just a series of clicks and broken syllables, yet it somehow made sense to her. She couldn't tell what was being said, but she understood it was a question.

"No." She said, shaking her head. She couldn't let Hues be killed. Out of all the humans who kept her imprisoned here, he was the only one she knew really gave a damn about her.

He repeated the question again. Artemis still could not understand. She shook her head again at him. Her eyes shifted rapidly, taking in the features she could see. He had the same fleshy dreadlocks and scaly skin as she did. She could see gold bands wrapped around a few of the locks. The speckled pattern on his hide was much darker than her own and had a reddish hue to it. His mask bore almost tribal designs, etched into the metal. On the forehead, three slashes cut into it. Two of the slashes were slanted, forming a teepee. The third slash stood off to the side, apart from others. The symbol stood out from the other designs and she could feel that there was something very important about it.

The predator lifted his hand hesitantly and gingerly laid it on the shackles around her wrists. "Why?" He asked in a man's mimicked voice. The voice sounded frightened, weak, as if that word was the last the man had spoken.

Artemis' mandibles twitched slightly. What could she say? A number of things flashed through her head, but they didn't even make sense to _her_. How was he going to possibly understand.

Suddenly, Hues whipped out from behind Artemis and stabbed the predator with a hypodermic needle filled with a strong tranquilizer. The predator roared and grabbed him by the throat. He slung Hues off of him and the human crashed onto the floor in a heap. The predator stalked towards him, extending his blades even further as he approached. Hues tried to scramble away, but he knew there was no where he could go to hide from this ruthless hunter.

The Predator chattered his mandibles from behind his mask. "**Behave.**" He mimicked Hues' voice from earlier in the night. He'd been watching the humans and their captive the entire night. Not a single move or word went unnoticed. There was still much about humans he did not understand, but he did know what that word meant. The human had dared speak to the female like she was a pet. He'd die slowly. He grabbed Hues by the hair and raised his blades so that he could force the sharp tips deep into his gut.

Suddenly, he felt something hit the back of his head. It was a forceful blow. Pain shot through him and he instantly lost consciousness. He released Hues and collapsed.

Hues breathed heavily, his eyes darting from the fallen predator to Artemis. She stood over the male, her whole body shaking with ragged breaths. Florescent blood splattered her shackles. Artemis had knocked the hunter out. She had saved him. She could have just let him kill them and escaped with him, but she'd chosen to protect him instead.

"Thank you." He said, breathlessly.

Artemis and Hues rushed back to the lab with their still dead to the world cargo. Luther had been taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital. His wounds were bad, but he'd most likely live. Santez, however, was now on route to the morgue.

Hues watched Artemis carefully, trying to read her expression. He was sitting the furthest away as possible from the hunter, who was now bound with the same shackles and collar as Artemis. Even though he was restrained, Hues still feared what he would be capable of in the tight quarters of the truck. Artemis was sitting the closest to the hunter. One of her hands rested on his chest, as if she were making sure he was still breathing.

"You didn't have to save me, you know. You could have just let us all die and escaped with him." Said Hues, nodding towards the large male. "Why didn't you?" He asked.

Artemis removed her hand from the male's chest and shifted in her seat. "I don't know this man." She said, her golden eyes were focused on him, but it didn't seem like she was looking at him at all. Her thoughts were somewhere else entirely. "We're the same species, the same race, but I don't know him. He's as foreign to me as he is to you, I think." Her eyes focused again and became sharp.

As soon as they were back at the lab, Artemis was forced back into her enclosure, while the male was rushed off to be evaluated. She waited for hours. She bathed in her fake hot spring to relieve her cracked hide. She hunted the small game that the humans released every thirty minutes. Eventually, she ignored the deer and rabbits completely. She paced the enclosure. All of her muscles were bunched and coiled as tight as springs. She threw everything she could get her hands on at the shatter proof glass that cut off her enclosure from the rest of the lab. With a snarl, she ripped off a large limb from a nearby tree and hurled it at the glass. The impact shook the entire pane of glass.

Almost immediately, Sullivan came on the intercom. "Stop that this instant, Artemis!" She scolded. "Must I remind you what that collar can do?"

"I want to see him!" Artemis growled, still pacing and looking for more things to throw. "I need to talk to him, Sullivan!"

"I don't think that's a good idea at the moment. He woke up a while ago and immediately tried to kill one of my employees. He's too violent. We have to keep him sedated."

"You don't understand, Sullivan." Artemis shook her head with displeasure. "I think he was trying to set me free. He was trying to rescue me from _this _and I turned on him. I need to make sure he's okay. I have to see him with my own eyes."

It took some pleading and more than a couple of tantrums, but eventually Sullivan relented. With shackled arms, Artemis was led to the observation room where the male was being held. He was heavily sedated with enough tranquilizer to bring down two full grown bull elephants. They had removed the beautifully crafted armor, leaving him in just the loin cloth. The mask sat idly on a nearby table. Somehow, even without his armory of weapons and gear, he still appeared frighteningly powerful.

Artemis approached the sleeping Predator hesitantly, nervous that he'd suddenly wake up and try to attack her. She couldn't take her eyes off of his face. She was used to human faces. They weren't her own kind, but to her they were familiar. The Predator's face, although it was so similar to her own, was entirely alien. The tusks on his mandibles were larger, the crest on his head a bit more pronounced with more ridged bumps. There were faint scars on his skin; old battle wounds. In the middle of his forehead was a scar that reflected the symbol on his mask.

"Wake up, damn you." She sighed under her breath, her mandibles moving gently. She laid her hand on his chest again, feeling his heart beat rapidly. The rate quickly increased. "His heart's racing." Artemis told Sullivan, feeling a concerned panic course through her.

Suddenly, the male awoke. He jolted towards her, pulling at his restraints. He roared in her face, a snarling, dark threat. Artemis stepped back, but tried not to let her fear show. The male glowered at her. Shier violence and hate burned from his nearly orange eyes. His mandibles flared, showing the sharp teeth within. He chattered his strange language at her. She didn't know what he was saying, but it sounded like an insult. Instinctively, she flared her mandibles and threw the insult back at him. The ridges above his eyes raised slightly and he started to laugh. It was a human laugh that sounded desperate and insane, a mimicked laugh, most likely from a recent kill. Some poor sap who found himself on the business end of this hunter's spear.

"Artemis, lets go back to your enclosure now. The male's too riled up right now. You'll have time to speak with him later." Said Sullivan, gently urging the young female away from the still madly laughing male.

Reluctantly, she went along with Sullivan. She looked back at the male one more time before leaving the room completely. He was laughing, but his eyes remained focused on her, full of rage and ill intent.


End file.
